Steam header and method of making the same



Patented July 13, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH H. L. TREVORROW, OF DUFFIELD, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE CHESTER- FIELD TUBE COMPANY LIMITED, 0F CHESTERFIELD, DERBYSHIRE, ENGLAND.

STEAM HEADER AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME.

Application led July 28, 1923, Serial No. 654,415, and in Great Britain October 17, 1922.

This invention relates to headers employed in water tube boilers and like hollow articles. Such articles are of rectilinear (usually rectangular) crossesection and are of tubular form closed at each end, an aperture being provided at one end for connection purposes.

The invention is applicable to all bodies of rectilinear cross-section which require to be closed at the ends and are relatively thick in the wall so that they are capable of sustaining high pressures.

Up to the present these articles have been formed from hollow tubes of appropriate cross-section and ends have been secured by welding.

In accordance with the present invention these articles are made weldless by taking a solid drawn blank with closed end and closing in the upper end to the requisite diameter appropriate for connection to a tubular member.

In the preferred manner of carrying out the invention the open end of a solid drawn blank is expanded or .contracted to elliptical or oval form and this end is then acted upon by a series of cupping dies whereby the centre portion of the end becomes closed into a practically circular form.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate in diagrammatic manner a preferred embodiment Vof the invention,

Fig. l represents a vertical cross-section through a completed header.

Fig. 2 represents a horizontal cross-section thereof.

Fig. 3 represents to enlarged scale a crosssection taken on the line A-A, Fig. 4, of the open ended blank in position in a die in which the end is contracted to elliptical or oval form.

Fig. 4 represents a plan view to enlarged scale of the blank after its end is brought to elliptical or oval form.

Fig. 5 represents a cross-section through one of the cupping dies in which the end of the blank is brought to circular form.

Fig. 6 represents the end of the blank after cupping in the die shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 1s a plan view of the open end of the finished header.

The completed header a is made from a blank and is in the form of a tube of rectangular cross-section closed at one end b and open at the other.

The open end is acted upon while hot by a die d the cross-section of which gradually merges from a rectangle to an ellipse or oval; this die is provided with. a plug or mandrel e of oval cross-section.

A. series of cupping dies is then driven on to the end of the blank, one of these cupping dies f is illustrated in Fig. 5, the crosssection of which gradually merges from a rectangle to a circle, Fig. 6 representing the end of the blank after operation in one of these cupping dies. t

The blank is finally acted upon by a cupping die of circular 'cross-section and hemispherical end in which the end c is brought to the domed form provided with a neckless aperture shown in Fig. 1 when it is ready for a threading operation necessary for making any requisite pipe connection.

I claim:

1. A method of making weldless headers Jfor water tube boilers, consisting in providing a header of rectangular cross section and closed at one end, reducing the open end to an elliptical form and then working such elliptical form into a domed form provided n with a neckless aperture.

2. The method of completing the open end of rectangular headers for water tube boilers, consisting in first reducing said open end into an elliptical form and then reducing such elliptical form into a ydomed :form lprovided with a neckless aperture.

3. A water tube boiler header of rectangular form in cross section, closed at one end, the opposite end being of the full rectangular form and dimension and formed with a circular aperture of less diameter than the similar dimension of the header and ar ranged in the plane of the end of the header.

4. A neckless water tube header of rectangular shape in cross section throughout its length, with one end closed and the oppositeend formed with a reduced circular opening.

5. A- process of making weldless headers for water tube boilers consisting in providing a header of rectilinear cross section having an open end reduced to an elliptical form and then brought by a series of cupping dies into a domed frame having a central aperture therein.

ture.

JOSEPH H. L. TREVORROW. 

